Friday, May 25, 2012

Hello and welcome to our Inventory Reduction Challenge #83 - use only a printed sentiment on the card front. Hmmm??? Sounds easy enough - NOT! I also want to welcome Danielle back after missing last week. We missed you girlfriend!

I have a large text stamp that I spent two days looking for. I don't loan my stamps, so it is here in my Stamp Mansion mess somewhere. But I couldn't find it.

I had a card I had made a couple years ago that had the sentiment on it, so I typed it up in a fancy font on my computer. The original stamp had a lot of swirly letters and was difficult to read. This is much easier to read.

I printed the sentiment by Helen Keller on vellum. The edge punch is Martha Stewart Doily Lace. The designer paper is Stampin Up! Le Jardin. The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts and the pearls from my stash.

The inside has more papers from the Le Jardin collection. The striped ribbon is from my stash. The colors are perfect with the papers. The jotting panel was cut with Nestabilities Deckled Rectangles. The flowers are smaller roses to match the larger ones on the card front.

I am especially pleased with the front as it turned out exactly as I had pictured it in my mind - a very rare occurrence!

Thanks so much for stopping by. Be sure to visit my team mates' blogs to see how they interpreted the challenge.

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Good Saturday evening all you Maggie lovers!!
Two very special young people finished their L.I.V.E.S. courses at State University of New York at Geneseo college. I don't remember what the letters stand for. One of the kids did an internship in graphic design. He showed us his projects notebook and he has some awesome projects.

Both of the cards have Graduation Tilda or Edwin on them.

The papers are Webster's Pages Yacht Club.

The sentiment from Our Daily Bread Designs.

The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts.
Edwin is colored with Copics.

I did a bit of trickery with Edwin. It's really the Tilda stamp with Edwin's head added. Then I cut out the hat and made it fit Edwin.

The tassel is white embroidery floss.

The papers on the inside are from a DCWV stack (don't remember which one).

The ribbon is from the stash.

The misspellings are a joke going back to the local newspaper misspelling Kaleb's name as Kabel.

He loved it and was still laughing about it when we left his reception!

Hannah hasn't really decided what she wants to do next.

This designer paper was from Webster's Pages Ladies and Gents.

I added roses from Wild Orchid Crafts over top of the ones printed on the paper. I like the way it turned out and really dressed up the card.

Tilda was colored with Copics.
Her tassel was made from white embroidery floss.

The inside is very plain. The papers are from a DCWV stack (don't remember which one.)

Since we don't really know Hannah very well, her card is much simpler than Kaleb's.

She also has a nickname - Handle. My hubby gives all the kids nicknames. Kaleb is Kabel. Hannah is Handle. Tyler is Tylernol. It gets to the point where the kids' friends are calling them by their nicknames.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Hello everyone! Today our Inventory Reduction Challenge theme is Paper Piecing. This is a very fun technique for me and I loved doing this week's card!

I received my order for the Princes and Princesses stamps a bit ago. I just adore Tilda in Bath Cap and the Bath Tub stamps. And they were easy to paper piece.

The cardstock used is SU Bashful Blue, Marina Mist and Not Quite Navy and Cryogen White. The DP is DCWV Sweet stack from 3 or 4 years ago. The flowers are from Magnolia and Wild Orchid Crafts. Pearls are from my stash. The ribbon is from Magnolia. The bath tub paper is from Cornish Heritage Farms Scrapblocks Layers. Unfortunately the papers are no longer available. The bubbles are covered in Star Dust Stickles.

On the background paper, I stamped the tub first then masked it and stamped Tilda to be in the bubbles.

Then I stamped the tub on the Scrapblocks paper, colored the gold trim and red hearts, cut it out and glued it over the image on the background paper.

Tilda was colored with my Sketch Copic markers, cut out and glued over the image on the background.

I went crazy with the Stickles on the bubbles!!

The swirls looked like an elegant curtain pulled up and to the side of the bathroom. But it was too plain, so I added some pearls to the swirl ends.

I really love how this turned out :D Sure wish I had a fancy tub and bubbles to soak in!!

This is the upper inside. I love the ribbon - it has glitter circles on it that look like bubbles floating from the card front.

The Pampering sentiment is from House Mouse Stamps and is just perfect for this card.

I colored the stamp with SU markers first and then stamped it on the paper.

The sentiment panel was die cut using a MFT Die-Namics Textile Rectangle.

I had to do a lot of "thinking through" my card for this one. I wanted my card to be frilly and fancy and very feminine.

I used a Whiff of Joy image - Willow Holding Baby. She is colored with Copics.
The card base is SU Very Vanilla. The solid cardstock is Prism Iced Mint, Frosted Mint and Intense Mint. Designer papers are Basic Grey Phoebe and Two Scoops and a DCWV stack.

The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts and Magnolia. Other embellishments are from Magnolia and my stash.

Here she is!!

Upper Inside

Lower Inside

Thanks so much for stopping by. Now scoot on over to my team mates' blogs and see their beautiful Mother's Day cards!

Friday, May 04, 2012

I worked feverishly to get this done for Friday morning. The Murphy's Law took over last night. I finished putting the "card" together and got the pictures taken. As I was sending the pics to Easy Share, the camera low battery warning light came on. From past experience I knew that meant only a few minutes of camera time was left.I did manage to get the pictures saved into Easy Share.

Then I started to crop/enhance the pics when a severe thunderstorm moved into the area. Don't know about you, but here that means shut the computer off. So much for getting my blog updated.

Fridays are always busy days for me - cardiac rehab in the morning; shopping in the afternoon. Dinner needs to be started about the time I get everything put away.
Anyway, here I am - late again.

Our challenge this week is to use an image that represents me and explain why. Stamping Tilda was my first choice, but I didn't have any papers that looked like a "Stamp Mansion". Then I decided to use gardening images. I don't have just one that "is me", so I made a little picture book that resembles me most of the summer.

Here is my potting shed. Wish I really had one.

I think the background paper came from my friend Kim. The Shed is a Magnolia stamp. I trimmed out 2 extra sets of flower pots and attached them with dimensionals over the printed ones.

The flowers in the wagon are also dimensional, but they don't show very well.

The lace is from my stash. All roses are from Wild Orchid Crafts.

The first step in planting a garden is to spade it up. Tilda is using the wrong shovel - it should have a pointed end, not flat.

I used Cinnamon Brown Fun Flock to represent the dirt.

The fence is a Magnolia Doohickey Die - Lovely Fence.

Once the garden has been spaded up and raked to remove stones and weeds, it's time to plant!

Tilda looks a little worried, but it seems like she's doing a good job with the planting.

All Tilda's are colored with Copics, done last year so no color list.

Once the seeds have germinated, the garden must be weeded and watered every day or so or when ever Tilda has time.

Tilda added some annuals from the garden center to get a head start on color!

The summer has really flown by. Tilda has a beautiful basket of flowers to adorn her table. Ummm!! They certainly do smell beautiful.

The grass was cut using another Doohickey Die named Grass.

This is me nearly all summer! Planting then weeding and watering the flower beds around my home. Sometimes the grass seems that deep!

Thanks so much for stopping by and enjoying my garden with me.
Be sure to visit my wonderful teammates' blogs to see what stamp resembles them.

Verse for Today

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About Me

I live in a small town in Western New York. I have 1 husband, 3 adult children, 3 young adult grandchildren, 2 teenage grandsons, 1 dog and 3 kitties. I am retired. Over the years I have quilted, received my certification as a National Quilters Association Certified Teacher, taught quilting classes, had a professional quilting machine, did a counted cross stitch piece for each of my family members as Christmas gifts and now do machine embroidery and cardmaking.
I got my first computer in 1999 to enhance my machine embroidery. I am now on my third computer-outgrew the hard drives very quickly with the embroidery programs! I am not as computer saavy as I could be, but I try to learn new stuff.